Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/888

 768 • HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY Masonic circles, and has been a member of the Blue Lodge thirty- five years. Of this lodge he has served as master several terms. He also belongs to the Royal Arch chapter, of which he has served as high priest several terms, and to the lesser Masonic degrees. He has been commander several years of Scofield Post, No. 121, G. A. R. While lie has never been an active politician, he is a Republican in politics, and has served on the village council and the school board. Mr. Warren was married September 19, 1866, to Cordelia A. Gaskell, of New York state, who died October 24, 1908. They have had the following children : Lelah M., born in November, 1867, married to Carl L. Strom, cashier of the Farm- ers' and Merchants' Bank at Minneapolis, and Sheldon Deforest, born in December, 1876, who is in partnership with his father; Herbert, who died at the age of three and a half years. The family worships at the Congregational Church. Olaf 0. Nordvold, of Zumbrota village a retired farmer and former well-known school teacher, is a native of Norway (Lesje, Gudbrandsdalen), son of Ole and Marit Nordslette n. The parents spent their entire lives in Norway, with the exception of the years from 1878 to 1881, which they spent with their sons in America. They are now deceased. Olaf, as he was then called by his friends, attended a high school in Norway, and graduated from the Asker Seminary for Teachers in 1864. The high grade of scholarship which he maintained while at the seminary secured for him the position as teacher in his borne district, a situation he held four years. His fifth year as a teacher was spent in the south part of Gudbrandsdalen, and in 186!) he migrated to Amer- ica, locating in Iowa. While perfecting himself in the English language he followed farming a short time and in the fall of that year came to this county as parochial school teacher and choir leader of the Minneola congregation. He was beloved by the pupils and honored by the parents, but in 1876, desiring more out-of-door employment, he purchased 256 acres in Zumbrota township, grubbed and improved 80 acres of this, and erected a new building, carrying on general farming until 1906, when he sold his farm to his sons and moved to Zumbrota village, where he has since resided. His public office holding includes service in the legislature in 1887, as town treasurer of Zumbrota for eight years, supervisor three years and postmaster at White Willow eight years, his tenure of office in the latter position extending through the administration of Harrison and one term of Cleve- land. He is secretary of the Farmers' Elevator Company, of Zumbrota, and chairman of its finance committee. He is also a director in the Wanamingo, Minneola & Cherry Grove Mutual Farmers' Insurance Company. Throughout his life Mr. Nordvold has taken a deep interest in church matters, and is now serving as